Wintec

Tertiary Update Election Edition – Vol 1 No 3 Jackie McHaffie, a Senior Academic Staff Member at the Centre for Health and Social Practice at Wintec, highlights the impact a lack of financial support has on the ability of people to access nursing courses. Far too many student nurses have to forgo the most basic essentials of daily life in order to get through their study. In other words, people that have chosen to...

Cuts in funding for Waikato Institute of Technology’s (Wintec) planned level 1 and 2 courses has led to a proposal being made to close Otorohanga Trade Training Centre, an initiative of the former Mayor, Dale Williams, to reduce youth unemployment. Funding from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) was cut by $1.83 million more than Wintec had been anticipating. As a result, there is now a proposal to discontinue the Certificate in...

Tertiary Update Vol 19 No 23 130 trades tutors at Wintec have roughly 70 desks to work at because the polytechnic is trying to save money by hot-desking them. Local TEU organiser Megan Morris says the hot-desking policy is clearly creating workplace stress. She says the lack of desks is hindering people’s work. “If they can’t find a regular space to work then people are inclined to work from home. But then students...

Ever wanted to play with heavy welding equipment? Well, boy, has Wintec got a deal for you! The polytechnic’s chief financial officer apparently noticed that its teaching laboratories and facilities were not financially productive when there were no staff or students in them. So why not rent them out, he presumably thought, like a gym for people to come in and do some casual practice on industrial machines. Wintec calls it TechGym,...

Years of funding cuts, low pay rises and constant reviews and restructuring at polytechnics need to end says TEU national secretary Sharn Riggs. Eight polytechnics are currently negotiating new collective agreements or will start negotiations soon. They include NMIT, Wintec, Open Polytechnic, Otago, NorhTec, Aoraki and SIT. Riggs says all those people deserve a decent pay rise after bearing the brunt of the government’s ongoing...

Tertiary Update Vol 18 No 4 Staff at tertiary institutions in the top half of the North Island are uniting today to support each other in their employment negotiations this year. Union members from institutes including the University of Auckland, Manukau Institute of Technology, NorthTec, AUT, AIS, Unitec, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, Awanuiārangi, Waiariki, and Wintec all plan to support each other through collective agreement...